Portable medical information analyzers are known in the art. For example, medical information analyzers are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,206,829; 6,171,264; 6,171,237; 6,162,180; 6,160,478; 6,149,585; 6,108,578; 6,102,856; 6,100,806; 6,093,146; 6,072,396; 6,067,466; 6,049,794; 6,047,203; 6,039,688; 6,011,989; 5,971,921; 5,959,529; 5,942,986; 5,941,829; 5,931,791; 5,921,938; 5,919,141; 5,878,746; 5,876,351; 5,873,369; 5,855,550; 5,840,020; 5,782,878; 5,772,586; 5,735,285; 5,704,364; 5,678,562; 5,564,429; 5,544,661; 4,909,260, incorporated herein by reference.
In addition, the following references are also known in the art: Russian Application No. 98106704/13 M.C. A615b5/02, A61B5/0452 published on Oct. 2, 2000. In addition Russian application No. 98103717/14 M. cl. A61B5/0452 published on Oct. 1, 2000; Russian Patent Application No. 97113351/14 M. cl A61B5/02 published on Feb. 6, 1999; and finally, Russian Patent Application No. 93016579.
All of these references have one or more significant disadvantages. First, there are few parameters being analyzed in that only one parameter may be analyzed at one time instead of multiple parameters. Second, there is no real time complex approach to a patient's complex present state evaluation because one or more of the above references require the direct participation of an expert evaluating the parameters. Third, many of the devices described by the prior art require the patient to be located adjacent to the evaluation device. Since evaluation devices may be the size of a personal computer, this limits the availability for patients, to use these monitoring devices.
In addition, in all of the previous models, the ECG waves were read directly and then analyzed. In the present invention a few preliminary points are analyzed first and then the ECG information is reconstructed in the form of a QRS wave. In addition, this invention involves a predictive model that uses one or more parameters derived from this QRS wave to determine the possibility of the user experiencing an abnormal medical occurrence.
Thus, in the past, patients may have been reluctant to use these medical information analyzers because they were too large and cumbersome. Furthermore, doctors or other medical professionals may have been reluctant to prescribe the use of these portable medical information analyzers because they might provide insufficient, or incorrect medical information.
For example, this medical information analyzer could be used to detect heart arrhythmias. Arrhythmias are a disturbance in the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. Various arrhythmias can be symptoms of serious heart disorders; however, they are usually of no medical significance except in the presence of additional symptoms.
The heart's rhythm is controlled by an electrical impulse that is generated from a clump of tissue on the right atrium called the sinoatrial node, often referred to as the heart's natural pacemaker. It travels to a second clump of tissue called the atrioventricular node and then to the ventricles. Bradycardia, or slow heartbeat, is often present in athletes. It may, however, indicate conduction problems, especially in older people. In one type of bradycardia, called sinoatrial or atrioventricular block, or heart block, rhythm can be maintained by implanted electrodes that act as artificial pacemakers. Drugs, caffeine, anemia, shock, and emotional upset can precipitate tachycardia or heartbeat faster than 100 beats per minute in the adult. It may also be a sign of over activity of the thyroid gland or underlying disease.
Flutters, and the even faster fibrillations, are rapid, uncoordinated contractions of the atrial or ventricular muscles that usually accompany heart disorders. Atrial fibrillation may be idiopathic, the result of rheumatic mitral valve disease (see rheumatic fever) in young people or hypertensive heart disease (see hypertension) and arteriosclerotic heart diseases (see arteriosclerosis) in older people. It may result in a rapid pulse rate and may be associated with thrombus formation in the atria and a risk of embolization to the brain (stroke) or other organs.
Atrial fibrillation is often treated with digitalis. Ventricular fibrillation is a sign of the terminal stage of heart failure and is usually fatal unless defibrillation is achieved by immediate direct-current defibrillation. Some tachycardias can be managed by the implantation in the upper chest of small defibrillators that sense dangerous fibrillations and administer an electric shock to the heart to restore normal rhythm. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2001.